Photograph by: Montreal police
, The Gazette

MONTREAL - The unusually strict police control of the images of Luka Rocco Magnotta’s return to Canada was probably wise, experts say, but the dramatic return could still embellish the storyline that has grown around this case.

Magnotta’s arraignment, during which he pleaded not guilty to five charges including first-degree murder, came hours after his extradition to Canada from Germany, during which six Montreal police officers accompanied him on a sizable Royal Canadian Air Force jet that landed at the lesser-used Mirabel airport near Montreal, out of view of the public and the media.

Montreal police released photos and a video they took of Magnotta being escorted from the plane by heavily armed cops, getting into a van and then arriving at a police facility in Montreal.

Montreal police Commander Ian Lafrenière said the original plan was not to allow any media coverage at all and to announce to the media that Magnotta had arrived only after he was in police custody and behind closed doors in Montreal.

But then rumours began to appear on Twitter and other media, he said, and people started showing up at St. Hubert and Dorval airports looking for the famous suspect.

“We didn’t want to cause a circus,” so Lafrenière told members of the media to meet police at Mirabel, although not on the tarmac. Police asked an airport employee to take photos, which were then given to the press.

“And today we were accused of putting on a show by the same people who used (our) images,” Lafrenière added wryly.

Leo Knight, a former RCMP and Vancouver police officer who also worked on the police desk at the Montreal Star, said he supported the way Montreal police brought Magnotta in. Montreal police probably didn’t want to feed into Magnotta’s “extreme narcissism” by allowing the press to take pictures of him at close range.

Also, there was always the chance there might be “some whacko out there who might try and take a shot at Magnotta just because he’s so offended by what he’s (allegedly) done. They’ve got to keep him safe for trial.”

Ray Surette, a U.S. criminologist and author of a book called Media, Crime and Criminal Justice, said Magnotta’s arrival was a great opportunity for police and prosecutors to demonstrate their effectiveness and skill.

Magnotta’s online persona was sizable even before he became a suspect in the slaying of Lin Jun. His blog postings, plus videos of Magnotta allegedly killing kittens, posing naked for an adult magazine, being interviewed about being a call-boy and auditioning for a TV modelling show were already out there. When he was arrested in Berlin following Lin’s slaying he did not resist and reportedly told police, “You got me.”

Surette said the case “clearly fits the evil stranger, psychotic killer” category and could easily one day be fodder for a movie.

“The bigger concern is not so much with (Magnotta), because he’s captured, but with the generation of people who have a grudge against the world for whatever reason.

“And here’s a guy who’s probably on TV more than the prime minister and (movie stars). It’s a real temptation, when (suspects) are celebritized, for people who see that as desirable.”

André Caron, a communications professor at Université de Montréal, said social media users, together with mainstream media, have amplified this crime story in an unprecedented way.

“Now people want to know why these body parts were sent in the mail,” Caron said, “and was the victim dead before he was dismembered? Where does the press go on that?